Discuss a good or bad example of a camera view in games and how it effected your experience. Also discuss the camera view that you would like to use in your games pitch.

The camera can be the most frustrating or useful thing about a game. It is what allows you the best view into the game world and if poorly implemented can be the aspect which drives you the most insane.

In the game “Banjo Kazooie: Grunty's revenge”, which appeared on Gameboy Advance, the camera can make it difficult for the player to judge heights of objects and the distance between them. It is in third person and bound to the player which is useful to the style of game. It is done in an overhead style to replicate the 3D feel of the other Banjo titles, but on a smaller scale. It gives you an almost birds eye view but because you have no control over the camera, it is very hard to determine spaces between walls if they are lengthwise. This can be exceptionally frustrating as it gives the illusion that a path is blocked. Perhaps this is done to make the game harder, but it seems instead to make things more annoying. This lack of control of the camera is very restrictive and there are times where you can get stuck down holes and not be able to get out of them because you cannot see enough of where you are to put yourself into the right position to jump out. This results in trial and error and a waste of time as it can sometimes take ages to get into the right spot. This camera also creates problems when you want to jump left or right from platforms as again it can be difficult to put yourself into the right position to jump across successfully. The restrictiveness of the camera maybe be because it was released on the Gameboy Advance, but when you get stuck, you still wish you could turn the camera to get a better view.

In games such as “Simpsons hit and run”, “Mario 64” and “Banjo Kazooie” the player can change the camera view to suit them. This can be very useful because sometimes the shot the camera automatically gives you is not what you want. Alhtough there is a tendency for the camera to never be in quite the right spot even when you adjust it. There is always a time where you wish the camera would sit in the right place so you can better judge your position. The most irritating thing is when you die because the camera would not show you the view you needed. It may not seem so important a lot of the time but after trying to jump across the same gap for the 10^th time because you can't see properly, can be the thing which stops you playing a game. The camera view is what gives you your perspective of your character (If you're playing a game with third person perspective) and if you can't get it to turn to the right spot it can make things very difficult to determine. For example the camera in Mario 64 allows the player to zoom in and out and rotate the camera as well as it being able to anticipate the right view for showing your path through a level. This camera can be very useful as you can generally see everything you want to, but often there are parts where the camera won't maintain a good view and you are forced to make do with what you've got. This can be seen in the part where you are running across a platform before it breaks underneath you. You would want the camera to stay behing Mario as you run across but it seems to always want to go slightly on the side which can be confusing and sometimes make you misjudge where you are and fall off.

For the game we're creating, we want it to be 3D so we'd like to use a camera similar to the ones used in “Banjo Kazooie” or “ Mario 64”. It would be third person and It would be useful for the player to have some control of the camera so they can set their own view. Although, it would be good if the camera was smart enough to prejudge a shot and anticipate the most useful angle. It would be great to be able to implement a camera which does not infuriate the player.